The Extra's Rise-Chapter 796: Meaning of Love (2)

The light faded from Elara’s eyes like the last ember of a dying star, and something fundamental broke inside my chest.

I knelt beside her motionless form, my hands still glowing with residual healing energy that had proven utterly inadequate when it mattered most. Her face held perfect peace, as if she had simply chosen to sleep after completing the most important work of her life. Around us, the golden radiance of her sacrifice continued to spread across Avalon City, carrying restoration to millions of people who would never know the name of their savior.

"Elara," I whispered, my voice cracking despite every attempt to maintain composure. "You magnificent, impossible woman."

’Arthur,’ Luna’s voice echoed in my mind with reverence that bordered on worship, ’in all my millennia guiding civilizations across the cosmos, I have never witnessed a soul of such perfect purity. She burned brighter than stars.’

Rachel collapsed to her knees beside me, tears streaming down her face as her Saintess training crumbled before the reality of losing someone so fundamentally good. "I couldn’t save her," she sobbed with the anguish of a healer who had failed at the most crucial moment. "All my power, all my training, and I couldn’t do anything."

"None of us could," I said softly, reaching out to close Elara’s violet eyes with gentle fingers. "She made a choice that transcended what any of us were capable of preventing."

Rachel’s grief transformed into something approaching religious conviction as she stared at Elara’s peaceful expression. "She saved millions of people with her life. Millions. I’ve been calling myself a Saintess, but I’m nothing compared to what she just accomplished."

"Rachel—"

"No," she interrupted with fierce determination cutting through her tears. "I’m going to be better. I’m going to be worthy of the example she set. Every person I heal from now on will be in honor of what she showed us tonight."

The sound of slow applause drew my attention back to Jack, who stood several meters away with an expression I couldn’t immediately decipher. His dark eyes were fixed on Elara’s form with an intensity that made something cold and furious unfurl in my chest.

"Truly magnificent," Jack said with what sounded like genuine appreciation. "I’ve seen many people die, Arthur, but that was something approaching artistry."

The casual tone, as if he were commenting on a particularly well-executed spell rather than the death of the purest soul either of us had ever encountered, ignited fury that transcended rational thought.

"You," I snarled, rising to my feet as astral energy began crackling around me with dangerous intensity. "You did this. Your Order, your plans, your evil—all of it led to this moment."

Jack’s expression didn’t change, though something flickered behind his eyes that might have been pain. "The Order’s plans were always going to proceed, Arthur. Tonight’s tragedy would have happened regardless of my personal involvement."

"Shut up," I said with lethal quiet, my hand moving to my sword hilt as killing intent radiated from my position. "Just shut up and fight me."

I launched myself at him with speed enhanced by grief and fury, my blade wreathed in Purelight as I sought to end the life of the man whose evil had cost the world its brightest light. But Jack was ready for my assault, his own power manifesting as flames that defied every assumption about what should be possible.

Nirvana Flames erupted from his position—pure white fire that burned with the intensity of stars, each tongue of flame carrying enough power to incinerate Peak Ascendant-rank opponents. But intertwined with that celestial fire were ribbons of Abyssal Flames, dark purple energy that seemed to devour light rather than producing it.

The combination of mana and miasma working in perfect harmony should have been impossible. The opposing forces should have torn each other apart, creating magical feedback that would destroy anyone attempting such integration. Instead, Jack wielded both with the kind of masterful control that spoke to years of dangerous experimentation.

"You want to know the truth, Arthur?" Jack asked as our initial exchange sent shockwaves through the ruined plaza. "You want to understand what tonight really cost?"

I responded with Hollow Eclipse, channeling astral energy through my blade while drops of pure Deepdark created voids in reality itself. The devastating technique carved through Jack’s flame barriers like they were constructed from wishful thinking rather than properly anchored magical energy.

But Jack flowed around the attack with fluid grace, his dual flames providing mobility that conventional magic couldn’t match. "She was the only good thing in my entire existence," he said with casual honesty that made my fury deepen. "The only proof I ever encountered that purity could exist in this world." free𝑤ebnovel.com

"So what?" I roared, switching to my Grade 6 art’s Third Movement as Stellar Cascade transformed my sword into a weapon of concentrated stellar energy. "You think your feelings matter? You think loving her gives you some kind of redemption?"

"Redemption?" Jack laughed with genuine amusement as he countered my assault with spiraling combinations of both flame types. "Arthur, I’m irredeemably evil. I know exactly what I am. But that doesn’t mean I can’t recognize beauty when I encounter it."

Our battle intensified as we moved through the ruined plaza, each exchange demonstrating the gap that had grown between our capabilities over the years. Jack’s mastery of dual flame techniques was impressive, but my combination of enhanced physical abilities and superior magical training allowed me to gradually gain advantage.

I pressed my assault with techniques that drew upon every aspect of my development—Nightingale Method spellcasting, Ancient-grade artifacts, Luna’s copied abilities, and combat arts refined through years of training. Jack was skilled, but he was still fundamentally human despite his demonic enhancements.

"You loved her," I realized with sudden clarity as I drove him backward through coordinated attacks that forced him into increasingly desperate defensive positions. "You actually loved her, and you still chose to participate in her destruction."

"Love doesn’t change what someone is, Arthur," Jack replied while weaving defensive patterns that combined both flame types in ways that violated every principle of magical theory. "I loved her precisely because she represented everything I could never become."

"Then you should have protected her!" I screamed, my fury reaching levels that transcended rational thought. "You should have found a way to save her instead of enabling the forces that killed her!"

Jack’s response was a desperate combination assault that pushed his dual flames beyond safe limitations, creating a maelstrom of opposing energies that should have torn him apart from within. But his technique held just long enough to force me backward, buying him precious seconds to recover.

"Some things are more important than individual desires," he said with bitter honesty. "Even when those desires involve the only person who ever made existence feel meaningful."

The admission triggered something fundamental within my consciousness. Jack had loved Elara—genuinely, completely, with the same desperate devotion that had driven me to pursue her in the first place. But where I had tried to protect her, he had chosen his loyalty to evil over his feelings for good.

"Then I’ll protect the peace she created," I declared with absolute conviction that seemed to resonate through multiple planes of existence. "I’ll build the world she died to save, and I’ll do it with the strength she gave me."

Something clicked in my mind like a lock opening—not just understanding, but perfect comprehension of truths that had remained theoretical until this moment.

The Nightingale Aurora Method erupted in my consciousness like a supernova of pure knowledge, eight-circle magical theory unfolding in cascading revelations that rewrote my understanding of reality itself. I could see the mathematical frameworks that governed dimensional space, the harmonic frequencies that bound matter and energy, the delicate balance points where creation and entropy danced in eternal opposition.

The knowledge flooded through my mind like liquid starlight, each equation and principle burning itself into my consciousness with perfect clarity.

But the mental transformation was nothing compared to what was happening to my body.

My bones began to sing—literally sing—as the calcium and marrow restructured themselves at the molecular level. Valeria, my Bone Symbiote, screamed in ecstatic harmony as her own essence evolved alongside mine, our symbiotic bond deepening into something approaching perfect unity.

’Master,’ she gasped through our connection, ’I can feel eternity flowing through us!’

My muscles tore and rebuilt themselves in seconds that felt like hours, each fiber becoming denser and more efficient while remaining outwardly unchanged. My nervous system rewired itself with crackling energy that made my vision explode into spectrums of light I had never imagined possible. I could see magical currents flowing through the air like rivers of liquid rainbow, dimensional boundaries that flickered like heat shimmer, the fundamental geometric patterns that gave structure to space itself.

My mana channels expanded explosively, the pathways through which magical energy flowed becoming vast highways capable of channeling forces that would have incinerated my previous body. The sensation was like being struck by lightning while drowning in an ocean of pure power, every cell in my body simultaneously dying and being reborn stronger.

The breakthrough to low Immortal-rank hit me like the birth of a new star.

But even that transcendent experience paled before what emerged from the deepest core of my being.

My Third Gift awakened not with gentle warmth, but with the violent beauty of a galaxy being born. The power erupted from somewhere deeper than my soul, deeper than consciousness itself, emerging from the fundamental spark that made me Arthur Nightingale rather than any other person who had ever existed.

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